Fabrication of Single and Multi-Layer Fibrous Biomaterial Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

For regenerative medicine applications, we need to expand our understanding of the mechanisms by which nature assembles and functionalizes specialized complex tissues to form a complete organism. The first step towards this goal involves understanding the underlying complex mechanisms of highly organized behavior spanning not only diverse scientific fields, but also nano, micro and macro length-scales. For example, an engineered fibrous biomaterial scaffold possessing the hierarchal spatial properties of a native extracellular matrix (ECM) can serve as a building block upon which living cells are seeded for repair or regeneration. The hierarchical nature of ECM along with the inherent topological constraints of fiber diameter, fiber spacing, multi-layer configurations provide different pathways for living cells to adapt and conform to the surrounding environment. Our previously developed Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) technique to deposit biomaterial scaffolds in aligned configurations has been used for the first time to deposit single and multi-layer biological scaffolds of fibrinogen. Fibrinogen is a very well established tissue engineering scaffold material, as it improves cellular interactions and allows scaffold remodeling compared to synthetic polymers. Current state-of-the-art fiber deposition techniques lack the ability to fabricate scaffolds of desired fiber dimensions and orientations and in this study we present fabrication and aligned deposition of fibrinogen fiber arrays with diameters ranging from sub-200 nm to sub-microns and several millimeters in length. The fabricated scaffolds are then cultured with pluripotent mouse C2C12 cells for seven days and cells on the scaffolds are observed to elongate resembling myotube morphology along the fiber axis, spread along intersecting layers and fuse into bundles at the macroscale. Additionally, we demonstrate the ability to deposit poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), Polystyrene (PS) biomaterial scaffolds of different diameters to investigate the effects of topological variations on cellular adhesion, proliferation and migration. Previous studies have indicated cells making right angle transitions upon encountering perpendicular double layer fibers and cellular motion is thwarted in the vicinity of diverging fibers. Current ongoing studies are aimed at determining the effects of fiber diameter and fiber spacing on mouse C2C12 cellular adhesion and migration, which are envisioned to aid in the design of future scaffolds for tissue engineering possessing appropriate material and geometrical properties.